Cannabis gardener jailed after police discover £137,250 of drugs

Pictured is Lithuanian Edgaras Kulikauskas, 29, who was illegally tending a cannabis plantation at a home on Hartington Road, Spital, Chesterfield, and has been jailed for two years.

Published:11:18Friday 23 September 2016

A drugs gardener tended to cannabis worth more than £130,000 at a Chesterfield home to earn money to send back to his pregnant wife in Lithuania.

Derby Crown Court heard how police discovered three bedrooms at the home on Hartington Road, Spital, where Edgaras Kulikauskas lived had been lined with silver foil and had lights timed to grow the drug when they raided it.

Pictured is Derby Crown Court.

As well as mature plants growing and ready to be cropped, according to the court, police found 78 bags of the class B drug already cultivated and ready to be sold.

The electricity supply at the detached bungalow had also been tampered with, Derby Crown Court was told.

Judge Nirmal Shant said: “I understand that you were brought to these premises to act as a cannabis gardener for someone else. But you understood what you were being asked to do, that growing cannabis is illegal and that you did it for financial reward.

“It was a large quantity of cannabis, 105 mature plants and 78 bags of the drug that had been previously harvested. You played a significant role here and I have no doubt that when you are released from jail having served half your sentence you will be sent back (to Lithuania).”

Leanne Summers, prosecuting, said police issued a warrant on the bungalow, on August 13.

She said: “A significant cannabis grow was discovered in three bedrooms in the detached bungalow. There were 105 mature plants in total and the bungalow had been extensively converted with silver foil on the walls, floor and ceilings to maximise the plant growth.

“The top range price that the plants could have been sold at on the streets would be £78,750 and a further 78 bags from a previous harvest were also at the property.

“The top end sale value of that is £58,500.”

Kulikauskas, 29, told police he had come to the UK from Lithuania in April to earn money to send back to his pregnant wife with whom he also has another child.

He said he had been met by two men who had driven him to the home in Chesterfield and told him to water the plants on a daily basis.

He told officers he was to be paid £3,000 every three months.

Miss Summers said: “He said he knew that growing cannabis was illegal and at one stage he left the property and on his return the plants had been cut down and new ones planted in their place.”

Kulikauskas pleaded guilty to production of cannabis and Kelly Shooter, mitigating, said her client was “wholly realistic” he would be spending time behind bars for his offence.